GATESHEAD Thunder inched one step closer to the unwanted milestone of a winless season, courtesy of yesterday’s latest defeat.

Just three games now remain for the beleaguered outfit to register their maiden victory of the Co-operative Championship One season, with Sunday’s visit of fellow strugglers London Skolars looking by far their most likely chance.

In the week that long-serving Chris Hood announced he would be stepping down from director of rugby duties at the end of the campaign, his side started brightly enough, with Mike Kelly being held up over the try-line.

Such is Thunder’s luck this season that Rochdale’s first foray into Gateshead’s half produced the most fortunate of tries, as a favourable bounce of the ball saw Dale Bloomingfield collect to pounce for the opener.

The left winger wrestled his way out of an attempted tackle to add a second try shortly after, with the Hornets’ superior offloading game allowing Dean Gorton to make use of space out on the right for a third.

Just when it looked like resorting to the familiar one-way traffic that Gateshead fans have had to endure on a weekly basis, the home side’s resistance saw them rewarded on the scoreboard.

Mike Mitchell squirmed his way over in the right corner, after showing great upper body strength under the weight of two tacklers, to open their account, and a fine flip pass from Will Bate put Ryan Clarke between the posts for a second.

Hornets ended the half with quickfire tries for Danny Ekis and Craig Ashall to assume a 28-10 interval lead, and just three minutes of the second half had elapsed when Bloomingfield completed his hat-trick with a score down the left-hand side.

Danny Samuel was next over just before the hour mark, with Liam McGovern quickly following as gaps in the Thunder rearguard started to appear with even more regularity.

Gorton’s second extended the deficit, but there was at least some cause for late cheer on the Gateshead side as Joe Brown touched down in the final minute.